Dave, I want you to do something for me. I want you to pick up a baseball, and tie a string around it, and then swing that ball around (outside, please, I don't want you breaking any vases).
Then I want you to try to do the same thing, without the string or anything else holding onto the ball. Tell me how difficult it is to keep that ball in orbit around your hand.
Impossible, right?
Yes, God is supernatural, and His power is beyond measure.
But what you're saying is that God is constantly doing a miracle to keep the moon in orbit around the earth, and the earth around the sun. The universe is physical, Dave, and physical objects in this physical universe must follow the laws of the physical universe.
"An object in motion will stay in motion, and an object at rest will stay at rest, all unless acted upon by an outside force."
Dave, when you roll that baseball across a table, what happens? The ball moves in a straight line (disregarding the seams, for a moment), no? That's because there's no outside force (other than gravity, which is keeping it on the table) acting on it to change it's direction. However, when you put a string on the baseball, and try to swing it around your head, there's a force acting on the baseball that is constantly changing it's direction, called centripetal force, caused by the string.
The centripetal force acting upon the moon and the earth is gravity. God doesn't need to supernaturally keep something in orbit around a planet or star, He can use the laws of the universe He created to do so.
Many times in the Bible, God used a natural force to accomplish tasks. Take for example, when Israel was fleeing Egypt, God used the wind to push back the waters of the Red Sea so that His people could walk on dry land, and then again used the wind to bring back the waters onto the egyptian army. Or even when God designed the earth with a way to wipe out His creation if they rebelled. He used the moon's orbit as a tidal pump to build pressure under the hydroplates (see here), which eventually cracked the earth's firmament and flooded the entire earth.
God uses the natural laws of the universe to do thing in the natural universe.
And Dave, when I say I don't believe in the Big Bang, could you please do me the favor of not arguing with me against it? We both agree (correct me if I'm wrong) that it didn't happen. So please stop arguing as if I think it did.
I believe that God created the heavens and the earth (matter) on day one, then used it throughout the rest of the creation week to form everything else. When God created matter, it had intrinsic properties that He used to build the universe. One of those properties was gravitational attraction.
Now, I don't claim to understand gravity, or how it works, or what causes it. But what I do understand is that it DOES work, and that it works well, and that it keeps the tides of the oceans moving, which keeps the ocean life alive. It keeps me grounded, so that when I'm driving along on the highway, and I hit a bump, I stay on the ground, instead of getting catapulted into the air.
I hope you know saying gravity is like a string proves nothing and does not answer the problems of the inconsistency that I have pointed out.
I agree with you that God has set up natural forces to run the universe. Gravity being a force that holds all orbiting bodies in place like a string contradicts that gravity is pulling orbiting bodies toward each other.
If you want to be consistent with God creating a natural force that actually moves these bodies other than gravity then you have to tell us what that force is that God is using or has created. The big bang is one proposal that has been offered and I know of no other. Do you?
--Dave